Diamond in the Rough
by Elvira Rayne
Summary: Put shortly, Allen loved baseball. What he didn't like, was people. Not after what happened three years ago anyways. So what's he supposed to do when his uncle forces him to join a team, when said team was the reason he didn't like people? Not only was Summer going to be long, but it was going to be exhausting.
1. Chapter 1

**Whoop, whoop, Laven week. Jk I'm so dead. This is actually just a random plot I had thought up a very long time ago and I didn't write anything for Laven week today (that's a lie, I did, but it wasn't finished in time so bleh. Maybe next year or something) I'm going to** ** _try_** **my best to make this a 7 chapter thing...but I'll have to rewatch the movie that encouraged me to write this like a billion times. I could've gotten off easily if Usagi-Twins didn't scream at me *twitch* so yeah. Here's a random plot for you guys to dwell on. And I wouldn't blame you if you** ** _pun_** **ched me for my pun title. Go right ahead. I'm dead inside.**

* * *

His bottom lip quivered, his eyes watered, his shoulders trembled, his body fidgeted. He thought maybe these kids would be different, maybe they would accept him for who he was, not how he played or how he looked. He was wrong.

At the age of twelve, Allen Walker wasn't a great baseball player despite the fact that his father and uncle were both renown players in the National DGM League. After his father died in a fatal accident in the field once, Neah has been pressuring him more and more into becoming 'who Mana wanted him to be.' It was hard...Allen could barely even _throw_ a ball, better yet catch it. It was just one day that he was walking around that he saw a few kids—eight to be exact—playing around in a field. He would always walk past them, watching them play the game Neah desperately tried to teach him. They were good, actually. Allen admired them a lot, he loved baseball, he just...couldn't play it. It was one day that he walked by that he saw a few other players on the field. They were all arguing about something, but Allen just felt down that they weren't playing today and continued on his own little walk. Just as he was passing the gate to get in, the other players from before nearly ran him over.

"Who do you think you're crossing?" The much larger teen asked bitterly.

"I-I'm sorry, I was just passing th-through..." Allen stuttered. The teen pushed Allen through the gate as he passed by them and Allen, being sensitive at the time, resisted the urge to cry.

"Maggot." Allen heard the teen whisper. He really wanted to go home, run to Neah, and cry his eyes out. He knew that it would be impossible though since his uncle was growing distant from him ever since he found out that Allen wasn't a natural at baseball.

"...sorry..." Allen mumbled as they strode off and picked himself up off the ground, attempting to rid himself of the dirt that had acquainted itself with his pants.

"Oi, brat, get out of our field." A stern voice spoke up and Allen looked up to see a very menacing teenager with long hair and a baseball bat in his hand. Allen immediately stood up and started walking away.

"Hey, wait!" Another one called and Allen stopped.

"Don't stop, fucker, keep going." The teenager from before snapped. Allen started walking again but felt himself being dragged back. "Damn it, you stupid rabbit..." The menacing teen muttered. Allen looked behind him curiously to see a boy with bright red hair that was kept around his face and green eyes that sparkled with excitement. His jacket said 'Rabi' so Allen could only assume that was what his name was...

"Hey, do you like baseball?" He asked cheerfully. Allen titled his head to look at all the other players behind him that were staring at him curiously.

"I like watching it." Allen admitted.

"Really?!" Rabi chirped. Allen frowned at him and looked away.

"I don't see what the big deal is..." He mumbled.

"It's a _huge_ deal! You can be our ninth player!" Rabi announced. Allen frowned at him and shrugged him off.

"I said I liked watching it, not playing." The younger boy mumbled and turned around to leave but this redhead was persistent. He tried dragging him deeper into the field.

"Doesn't matter! You know how the rules go then? I can just teach you!" Rabi said jovially. Allen pulled his arm out of Rabi's grasp.

"No, you can't..." Allen muttered and backed away from him. "My uncle has already tried...I can't do it...I just can't..."

"Your uncle, eh? Maybe he's just not good at teaching people!" Rabi reasoned and headed towards him.

"No, he's good...I just suck." Allen said quietly.

"Gee, where's your self-esteem, kid?" Rabi asked jokingly. "If you don't know how to play, you can at least catch a ball, right?" Rabi questioned. It was rhetorical, but Allen didn't notice.

"...no..." He replied. Rabi frowned at him.

"How old are ya, twelve? Any twelve-year-old can catch a ball!" Rabi reasoned.

"Well I can't." Allen grumbled.

"Oh come on, just try it?" Rabi whined. Allen huffed and shook his head.

"Oi, rabbit! Duck!" The mean teen from before shouted. Rabi, not questioning anything, ducked and Allen cocked his head to the side.

His eyes widened when he noticed a ball coming straight for him.

Honestly, Allen was terrified. He knew that if he just thought about it, he could at least reach his hands up and block it or something. It was a real easy catch. A ten year old could've caught it. But, Allen just stood frozen stiff and nearly collapsed when he felt a rush of pain through his skull. He fell to his knees and clutched the left side of his face. Rabi watched the entire thing blankly. The kid didn't even make an _attempt_ to catch it...he just didn't _try._ Truthfully, Rabi _hated_ people like that. They would demand that it was impossible for them to do something, yet they never really tried? Yeah, things like that just ticked him off. His eye twitched and he stood up straight to stare down at the kid a bit irritably.

"Wow...you _do_ suck."

That was all it took for Allen to start crying.

The only ones that really cared that Allen was crying was a few of the other members of the baseball team, Miranda and Lenalee. Rabi mumbled 'crybaby' before walking away, throwing the bat over his shoulder. The girls exchanged confused glances as Rabi walked past them. "Come on guys, let's keep practicing."

That was the last time Allen ever tried to connect with players of another team.

He avoided playing on a team for three years, practicing all on his own, or having Neah throw baseballs at him. In fact, he actually had a machine made for him (because of how famous his uncle was, he could get it made) so that he could just set it up whenever he liked, pushing in the settings of how fast he wanted the balls to shoot out, the distance, _everything._ He used his mind to quickly calculate the movements of what was going to happen next. Everything for him was hard as he progressed through his younger years, leading up to his teenage ones now...he survived through so much, and even gained a scar whenever the machine he used malfunctioned and blew up, burning a few pieces of hot metal to his face. His hair had slowly turned white through the years of dealing with so much stress on his shoulders. Allen didn't play baseball for fun, even though he wanted to. In order to have fun, he'd have to join a team, and he'd _never_ do that.

'Rabi' on the other hand, whose actual name was 'Lavi', kept on playing in that same field, trying his best to get better and better at what he did. The team he had grew together as a family, but he knew one day he'd have to have another player join the team since you needed nine players in an actual team. Just one more player and they could actually join the minor summer league. If they played hard enough and impressed the judges, then they could get a chance to be hired for the National DGM League. Lenalee had tried telling him that they would never get close to anyone enough as all of them were together, but he had to try, right?

What really bugged him the most was the kid he met three years ago. He couldn't get it off his mind even now as he made his way home from the field. He knew that he screwed up by giving up on the kid when he saw that he couldn't catch a ball. Even if he couldn't, he still could've made friends with the kid and just had him in the center field and not have him do anything. He'd still learn as he grew, but no, Lavi had to be a douche-bag and call the small kid a crybaby. It was one of the biggest regrets of his life even though his parents told him to live life with no regrets. Then again, Lavi didn't listen to anyone most of the time so it really wasn't that surprising, was it?

 _Crack._

The sound of a bat colliding with a baseball was music to Lavi's ears. He paused in his walking when he realized that there _shouldn't_ be any practice going on...he just _left_ practice...then again...maybe he found the Noahs' base? He really wanted to know where they trained...could it really be them though? He'd walked down this street so many times before...

 _Crack._

There it went again...Lavi stopped walking and waited for another sound.

 _Crack._

Being the curious rabbit he was, he started walking in the direction that he heard the sound in.

 _Crack._

Lavi slowed to a stop and found himself outside a very small house with a huge field in the back yard.

 _Crack._

He walked around the house and peeked around to see a teenager in front of some kind of machine holding a bat. He couldn't really make out the boy very well since he was pretty far away. Just as Lavi was about to look away, the machine shot out a ball in a very fast motion and the boy hit it flawlessly.

 _Crack._

Lavi felt his mouth drop as the balls kept coming at the boy. He looked obviously tired by the way he was slouching, but he just didn't seem to want to give up...Lavi ducked behind a bush when a man came out of the house.

"Allen! Don't you think-" He started.

 _Crack._

"You've finished practicing? You never stay out this-" Once again, he was interrupted by the machine.

 _Crack._

"Late!" He finally finished. 'Allen' sluggishly dropped his back and yawned. The machine shot out a ball and he stared at it, stunned. He then made an undignified noise and ducked. The man that came out before screamed and also ducked so that the baseball flew into the house and broke something. His eye twitched and he stared at Allen sternly.

"Oops, I miscounted." He replied sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck.

"You could've caught it!" The man said incredulously. Allen paused and tapped his chin.

"I suck at catching." He replied simply and stood up to dust his knees off. "You know that." Allen gave him a lopsided smile and bent his spine backwards to crack his back.

"Just come inside already." The man grumbled. Allen smiled and jogged towards the back door. He frowned and stopped before looking over directly where Lavi used to be. The redhead had previously ran off. "What's wrong?" Neah asked.

"...nothing...just thought I saw something..." Allen said slowly before walking inside. He took a drink out of his water bottle and collapsed on the couch. His shoulders felt really sore...then again, that's what he gets for staying outside all day. He probably would've gotten burned on more than just his face if he didn't wear long sleeves. Allen groaned and nearly tore his shirt off, rolling his shoulder. Neah walked in and sat down next to his nephew.

"...why don't you join a team? It'd be a waste if you didn't..." Neah mumbled.

"Because that would mean trusting people that think you're worthless." Allen replied and stood up. He didn't want to talk to Neah about this. He knew that if he did then Neah would bring up Mana and Allen _hated_ it when he brought up Mana. Once he walked into his room, his golden golem, Timcanpy, flew to his side. Allen was only temporarily taking care of him for Cross...or so his master said. He had a feeling that Cross just didn't want to feed him anymore. Despite the fact that Timcanpy was a golem, he could eat a _lot..._ even if he _was_ a machine. "What's up, Tim?" Allen asked. The golden golem flew off of his shoulder and hit itself against the window and then stared at Allen disapprovingly...even though it didn't really have a face...Allen could just tell... "You want to go outside?"

Timcanpy nodded his head.

Sighing, Allen looked out to the sun setting over the horizon. "I'll take you on a walk tomorrow, how does that sound? It's probably been awhile since you had a good view of the town, huh?" Allen asked and Timcanpy fluttered around excitedly. Honestly, he didn't like walking around town. He would walk around only to go shopping. If he did anything else, he had a chance of seeing Cross or that blasted team he met three years ago. If Allen ever saw them again, he'd probably throw a baseball at their eyes. Yeah, then _they'd_ get to see how it felt.

Allen had more than enough black eyes for a few lifetimes.

The next morning, Allen was woken up by Timcanpy, who was slamming himself into everything so that his master would wake up. Timcanpy chose to not have anymore mercy and flew down and bit Allen's ear. Allen yelped and sat straight up in his bed. "Ugh, Tim...what the hell...what time is it?" Allen muttered and looked over at his alarm clock. It was ten. "Tiiiiim." Allen whined. Timcanpy showed it's teeth to him and Allen sighed, getting up to dress.

After dressing comfortably, Allen whined a bit of how hot it was until fixing him and Timcanpy a bowl of cereal. Allen amusingly watched Timcanpy devour his bowl quickly. After breakfast, Timcanpy landed on his shoulder and Allen opened the door to leave the house. He called back to Neah that he was leaving and then walked down their driveway and on the sidewalk. It was actually kind of nice to be out like this, just walking to relax. Usually he would jog around his house a few times to build up leg strength, but now he was relaxing. His shoulders felt like hell, but he didn't worry much about that. His shoulders _always_ felt like hell. Neah tried giving him a massage once and...well, let's just say that Allen was ready to murder him. Timcanpy flew around his head excitedly as they entered deeper into the neighborhood. Allen had passed by many strangers that were jogging and they would greet him softly or just nod their head in his direction. At least _these_ people were nice...

 _I wonder if they're still in that sandlot..._

His curiosity got the better of him and Allen found himself walking in that direction. He was proven correct whenever he heard the clashing of bat against ball, shoes against dirt, cheering against booing. What he heard the most was people having fun. Something he'd never been able to do. Timcanpy seemed to want to go as close to the gate as he possibly could, but Allen paid no mind to him. He wasn't going near that gate, not after what happened last time. Instead, Allen carelessly put his hands behind his head and kept walking. Just as he passed by the gate, a loud shout was heard.

"Watch out!"

Oh how familiar _that_ voice was.

Allen looked over to see a ball coming for him and panicked. It was then that he realized that Timcanpy had flown in front of the ball and opened his mouth to catch it. Said golem caught it in his mouth and flew over to his master worriedly. Allen held out his gloved hand and Timcanpy dropped it in his palm. Yeah, it was definitely a baseball. Quite worn too. Lavi, or as Allen knew him as 'Rabi', came running over. "Sorry 'bout that, that's ours." Allen looked at the ball and then looked at Lavi and then back at the ball.

"Oh, did you want me to return it to you even though you almost took my eye out with it?"Allen asked, the British accent of his showing it's face again. "No offense, that is." Allen sniffed, observing Lavi's eye-patch. Lavi laughed and waved him off.

"None taken." He replied and neared him.

"I wouldn't get too close." Allen said bitterly. Lavi blinked and stopped walking before giving Allen an odd look as he tossed the ball in his hand. "How else will you be able to dodge it?"

"Dodge what?"

Allen pulled his arm back and threw the ball as hard as he could at Lavi. Lavi let out a scream and dropped to the ground. He could _feel_ the ball whiz past him as it had barely touched a few pieces of his hair. Allen frowned when he realized it didn't hit him. "Bummer, it didn't hit. Maybe I'm a bit too sore, don't you think, Tim?" Allen asked. Timcanpy grinned and nodded his head. Allen smiled and pet Timcanpy's head lovingly. He didn't notice the redhead storming towards him until he managed to tackle him to the ground. "AH!"

"What was _that_ for! You could've taken my other eye out, man! That's not cool!" Lavi growled, staring down at the appalled teen. Allen opened his mouth to reply but he just couldn't help but notice that Lavi was _sitting_ on him. He was _touching_ him. Someone was _touching_ him.

"G-get off!" Allen shouted and tried pushing Lavi off. Lavi growled again and pinned his wrists beside his head.

"Seriously, dude, what did I ever do to you?"

"What did _you_ do to me? Oh so I guess you don't remember then? You don't remember how you destroyed my hopes when I didn't even know any better? Let's not forget that you insulted me for simply crying! I couldn't help that I was sensitive back then!" Allen shouted. Lavi cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Um, have we met before?"

"Oh for the love of—Tim! Sic em!" Allen snapped. Timcanpy rushed forward and bit Lavi's nose as hard as he could. Lavi cried out and fell backwards so that Allen was on top of him instead. "Don't you _ever_ talk to me again." He hissed.

"Allen! There you are! What's this? You've made friends?!" Allen paled at the sound of his uncle calling out.

"N-no! I was just...um..." Allen muttered, dusting himself off. "He fell and I came to help him." Allen lied, pointing at Lavi.

"Then how were you on the ground as well?" Neah asked. Allen panicked and Lavi spoke up.

"I accidentally dragged him down with me." Lavi lied, going along with Allen's plan. The kid was already mad at him for god knows what reason he didn't want Allen to hate him even more...if that was possible...

"Oh...wait were you guys playing _baseball?"_ Neah asked excitedly. Allen looked mortified as Neah helped Lavi to his feet. "Funny thing, really, you see, Allen is an amazing—" Neah started but Allen covered his mouth. He then spun Neah around and started pushing him away.

"Come on, Tim, we're leaving!" Allen announced and his golem that had started flying around before, followed him.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Neah chanted and planted his feet. Allen nearly fell over and Neah grabbed his wrist and started storming over towards Lavi. Lavi stared at the two confusingly. "This is a perfect chance, Allen!"

"No, no, no, no this is _not!"_ Allen chanted back and tried to pull his wrist from Neah's grasp. "It's not happening!"

"You see Allen is actually looking for a team to join—"

"I AM NOT!" Allen shouted, still trying to remove his wrist from Neah's grasp. "You just made that up!"

"—and you seem to be _lacking_ a player."

"LET GO!" Allen demanded. Neah tightened his grip and Allen whined. He would've sicced Timcanpy on him, but Timcanpy would never disobey his uncle. Lavi smirked and raised an eyebrow at Neah.

"What could you be implying there, Mr...?" Lavi trailed off invitingly.

"Walker." Neah answered with a smirk. "Neah Walker." Lavi's jaw dropped.

"Ugh let go!" Allen complained. He pursed his lips and kicked behind Neah's knees. The adult faltered, but didn't release his iron grip on him.

"Cut it out!" Neah argued and looked back at Lavi with a smile. "Would it be alright if Allen joined your team?" Neah asked.

"NO! It would _not_ be alright!" Allen tried answering.

"I think that'd be awesome." Lavi agreed. Allen gave him a mortified expression. "By the way, my name's Lavi." Lavi said with an exaggerated blink...or maybe that was a wink...

"Y-you can't just do that! I don't like him!" Allen said reasonably.

"Now, now, Allen, that's not nice. Tell him you're sorry." Neah instructed.

"No!" Allen growled and Neah spun him so that he'd face Lavi and pushed him towards the redhead, who simply grinned at the white haired boy. "I am _not_ five!" Allen tried planting his feet in the ground like Neah did earlier, but it just wasn't working. Neah pushed him to the point that their chests were touching. Allen blushed brightly and looked away.

"Give him a hug and say you're sorry."

"No!"

"Don't make me lower your rations, Allen." Allen paled and quickly gave Lavi a hug.

"I hate you." Allen whispered and Lavi grinned.

"Awe, Allen, I love you too!" Lavi said brightly. Neah _squealed._

"You idiot! Why did you say that!?" Allen growled threateningly.

"I didn't know you had a boyfriend, Allen!" He cheered. Both Allen and Lavi paled.

"Look what you did!" Allen whispered.

"I didn't know he'd take that seriously!" Lavi whispered back.

"You _are_ his boyfriend, _right?"_ Neah asked, giving Lavi a stare that said he better say yes or he'd have his head chopped off.

"Um...yeah...about that..." Lavi started but was interrupted by another one of Neah's squeals.

"So cute!" He chirped. "I'm sorry, Allen can be such a distant person at times, but I'm glad he found someone he loves~" Neah said, relieved.

"I hate you so much." Allen whispered bitterly into Lavi's ear.

It was going to be a _long_ summer for the both of them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Short chapter is short. Yes, I do realize I'm behind on Laven week. Really busy with jobs and cons and packing and all that. The words I have on this chapter make me cringe. Hopefully the next one will be a bit longer. I'm going to be taking my Idea pad with me to the hotel so that I can hopefully get some things updated...really, I'm so sorry Dx anywhoodles, I thank Jasdero Jasdevi, banapples2018, Usagi-Twins (*glares because I wouldn't have to worry about updating if not for you*), SnowNeko13, Lead Potato (I've put my babies' week off long enough! I must!) and Ryuakilover for reviewing! Also all the follows/favorites! ^^**

* * *

"I don't want to be here." Allen hissed towards Lavi, who was 'introducing' him to his friends. Or, as Neah would call it, his new team members. He _really_ didn't want to be here. What if someone recognized him here? Wait, that wouldn't really matter, considering that he wanted to leave. They'd probably want him to leave too if they learned that he sucked at catching. Don't get him wrong, he's caught a ball before...maybe like twice. Each time scared the hell out of him though.

The redhead ignored him, and kept explaining how his uncle happened to be the famous 'Neah Walker'. Ugh. This guy doesn't listen. An evil smile appeared on Allen's face, but he quickly hid it. "Man, his uncle looks exactly like he was, just a bit older! It was so awesome and-"

"-he also thinks we're dating." Allen cut in. Lavi's mouth instantly snapped shut and they all looked over at him. Allen simply glared at the redhead.

"Okay, that was an accident-"

" _What?"_ Lenalee nearly shouted. "Lavi! You aren't gay!"

"Well, I mean, his uncle kinda just...did a thing..."

"Did a thing? You realize that you'll have to act all lovey dovey with him around his uncle right?" She mumbled.

"Who says he's meeting my uncle again anyways?" Allen muttered. He paused, "or we can pretend this never happened and I can go home."

"What would you tell your uncle?" Lavi challenged.

"That we broke up," he paused for a second and his evil smile returned, "then he'd try to shoot you, oh that would be _perfect."_ Lavi deadpanned.

"You _really_ don't like me, do you?"

"What gave you that idea?" Allen said, faking incredulously. He paused, "and, you said your name was Lavi, so why does your coat say Rabi?" Lavi laughed at the question.

"I get that _all_ the time!" Allen just stared at him expectantly, waiting for him to explain, "right, well, no one could ever get my name right and when I ordered it at school, Yuu had been really angry at the time and called me a rabbit. So, the dude thought he heard wrong and so, I guess you could say it's a mixture of Lavi and rabbit." The redhead nodded proudly.

"Don't fuckin' call me Yuu." Kanda growled. Allen didn't like him. It was his fault in the first place he got a black eye.

"Kanda's first name is Yuu." Lenalee explained when Allen had a look of confusion on his face. "He only goes by Kanda, though. Japanese thing, I think." She mumbled.

Well, that cleared that issue up...not that Allen really cared.

"My name is Lenalee, this is Miranda, Krory, Daisya, Chaoji, and Timothy."

Timothy looked to be the youngest of them here. He couldn't be any older than _ten._

"What're you looking at?" The blue-haired boy snapped. Allen blinked and just stared at him.

"Isn't it obvious?"

Kanda snorted and Timothy growled at him.

"Okay, guys, let's get along now." Lavi quickly intervened. Allen didn't see what the big deal was. He was just pretty amazed that a nine year old could play with a bunch of people older than himself. "I suppose maybe we should play a game to show you how we roll, eh?" He suggested. Allen shifted his gaze to the redhead.

"I already know how you play. You guys play here everyday of the week." He paused. "Which makes me wonder if you guys truly have nothing better to do. Don't any of you have jobs or something?"

"Nope!" Lavi chirped. "What about you, you don't if you're here right now and can freely take up any team."

"One: I never said I _wanted_ to join. Two: my uncle was extremely famous and he's quite frugal. I don't need to get a job. Even if I did, I have my own ways of acquiring money."

"That...uh...okay..." He mumbled, a bit surprised. "But, actually, Miranda and Krory both have jobs, but they work in the morning and play with us the rest of the day. Sometimes they need breaks though, because of all the working..."

"Ah."

"So you've seen us play before then?" A cheesy grin etched itself upon the redhead's face.

Wow. So Lavi _really_ didn't remember him...

"Yes." Allen sighed. "Honestly, you could do a little touching up with your hitting Miranda, and Krory, perhaps..." Allen started going on a long rant, pointing out all their flaws. In a way, he was helping the team, but he was mostly doing it to get on their nerves so they'd kick him out. Lavi just looked at him in _wonder_ and _awe._

"Dude! You could totally be our coach too!"

"That wasn't the reaction I was hoping for..." The younger grumbled, looking away.

"I mean, I know you're really into Baseball and that your uncle used to be really good and in the league but...wow. You really love it, huh?"

"I like watching it..." Allen said slowly. "...and of course I was moreover _forced_ to interpret every little thing since I wasn't exactly a _natural_ like..." He paused.

Why was he telling them his life story?

It's not like they really cared; they just wanted to use his 'talent.' They didn't need to know his life outside of the team for that. "Hm, really though, I thought you'd be offended by my thoughts." He said, changing the topic.

"Nah, I mean...I'm sure we can admit we all have flaws, and sometimes it's good from someone else's point of view so we can improve." The redhead noted wisely. "Anyways, you've watched us play and all, but now you can see how you play _with_ us. Any particular flaws you got? Ya know, for us to keep in mind?" He offered.

"I'm not the best at catching, I can admit that much." Allen answered. "I'm more of a batter myself."

"Ah, same here. I mean, I'm not bad at catching, but I'm no superstar!" He laughed.

"Well, because of my flaw, I only ever practiced batting and I occasionally jog now and then for leg strength. Since my uncle is...well, you know, he had a machine made specially to shoot baseballs and that's basically what I've been doing for the past two weeks of Summer." Allen informed.

"Oh! So that was you hitting those baseballs!" Lavi snapped, as if he got an answer right.

"You were...stalking me?" Allen deadpanned.

"Wh-what?! No, man, I was just...passing by and saw you..."

"So you were watching me." Allen clarified.

"Yes! Wait, no! Man, you make me sound like a creep..." Lavi grumbled. Allen smiled.

"I try."

"...anyways, are you ready to play, or what?" He beamed.

"Not really," was Allen's cool reply, "but I guess I really do not have a choice in the matter, do I?"

 _I've never had the choice for anything, did I, Mana?_


End file.
